Freedom and constraint in a local education authority: A case study of some historical, logistic and socio-economic aspects of the establishment of primary and secondary schools in the city of Leicester between 1944 and 1974.

This case study within the general field of studies of local educational administration is divided into three parts. In Part 1, the pre-1939 circumstances of schools in Leicester are briefly described and the number and kind of school places in 1939 is quantified. The Development Plan for Schools is presented as a link between the pre-war and post-war school systems. And the post-war conditions in which the Development Plan had to be implemented are outlined. In Part 2, three main quantities are established. The ??open-ended commitment? to provide for all children resident in Leicester is quantified and analysed. The shortage of school places which persisted throughout the period is quantified and interpreted. And the quantitative shortage of teachers is shown to have qualitative implications. Part 3 comprises three examples of ways in which the LEA distributed the exercise of its functions. The initiSIy centralised functions of the Education Committee and its officers were distributed amongst other Committees of the City Council and their officers. The Education Committee left an important function in the hands of a self-perpetuating body of teachers. Consideration of a form of comprehensive secondary education was handed to a working party in which teachers predominated. In discussion and conclusion, the importance of the law of education on the work of the LEA is stressed; the possibility of different relationships between the LEA and the Department of Education and Science on the input and output sides of the school system is considered; historical factors - which comprised the stock-in-hand of the school system - are found to be of greater influence than current inputs; and the school system of Leicester, between 1944 and 1974, is recognised as part of the national school system which was also recognisably of its own kind.